Oleg, will the clouds change shape? So a good day could turn overcast?

Also, will the engine support hundreds of aircraft in the sky at the same time like Battle of Britain 2 Wings of Victory does?

Lastly, will there be a dynamic campaign; so the abilty to fly back to base, refuel, re-arm and then take off again whilst the battle is still raging?

Thank-you for being so helpful :D

PS: one more question, sorry I can't stop myself! You once asked me to e-mail you with information on barricaded fields; a measure which farmers and other people employed to stop luftwaffe airmen landing. Because I have been very busy and haven't had the time to research this properly, did you ever find anyone to do it? And will it be modelled? Such a feature shouldn't be too hard to model, and would certainly add to the immersion :D

please look interviews on simhq.com
I don't plan to tell more now. Especially when some info still secret.

Ah, I wonder about that too. Il-1 series is more for skirmishes. Large fleets do not work so well. Rise of Flight is a next gen sim but can only handle a dozen or so aircraft before it starts to slow down. I hope SoW will not suffer from similar limitations.

Probably somewhere in between, but you are right - the saturation, but especially the contrast is much too high. When you have a blinding noon sun above but can barely see anything inside your cockpit, somethings definitely not right.

http://www.tractionpr.com/1C/IL-2%20...of_prey_02.jpg


@ OM:
You can take pictures of a Black Shark in Russia :grin:


Just don't play sharkbait!

Maybe you can share some shots you made after your vacation ;)

Also vigneting is the things that shouldn't be. I understand as photographer that some time vigneting makes the pic looking better and sometime using vigneting myself on the photos, but all the time... "simulating" fringe region of eyes - it shouldn't be done because just of this... :)

I can't post myself here the link to my photo website to show undewater and other shots. It would look like advertizement.

However I plan to post there with evaluation of EOS 7D (Canon again gave me new camera for the personal test) some shots from our office nearest time. :)

Then I can do that;) Maddox Art
Enjoy guys.
(but all discussions about it in the "Other Topics" section please.)

Oleg likes Dolphins :D

Hi Oleg

can you clear your private messages in this forum? ;-)

Yes, I noticed the vignetting myself. I think it's misplaced in a PC-game - the field of view is narrow enough on a monitor and especially in a simulation the player's focus will not always be in the middle of the screen, so the vignetting is wrong all along.

EOS 7D - Wow! Now that's a nice cam. Looking forward to pictures of your office, though you probably won't use much of the 7Ds features for that ;)

I recently started with my little EOS 1000D - got to say that I'd probably go for a EOS 500D if I had to make the choice again, but it's a nice camera for a start - what it can't do, I make up with photoshop :grin:

Er, okay, let's get back to topic ;)

you forgot my email?

personal message board overloaded each day when I clear it. :( Ok will try right now.

Wow very nice !! Now I have a totally different question to Oleg, not flight sim, but about camera knowledge, haha. As a matte painter for the movie industry I am looking for a low price range digital camera that makes good high res pictures and has a large memory - any ideas Oleg? (sorry guys couldnt resist to ask the man)

I did. But please asap. I think there will be again full very soon

To great question.
If you only can post such a question on my russian forum there - I would ask. The problem there is you use traslator there is not ability to register on the forum... you need to use russian form, then write english. Have no time to make it working right. Ot to make other message board there.
And yes... I answer and put ther new content only at home.

Yes lets back.

PS. Use Canon's Digital Photo Professional tools supplied with your camera and RAW format and then I'm sure you will enjoy you camera more time before to move to more expencive, say EOS 5D mark II or EOS 7D. Only these Canon's camers make sense to move to the next level.
However, I'm using Nikons most time.

ok you have the PN :-)
i have only a very old E Mail adress from you

I will try to register there :-)

We should open another thread on this ;)

Well, back to topic: I know what you meant about the eye for the right looks now - SoW will look awesome :grin:

1. Only on my own forum. Not here.
2. Yes. Thank you.

Hello Oleg

Good to see you back here again :grin:

I just have 2 quick questions for you:

- Will the player be able to make humans (such as groundcrew on airfields and soilders) move around the ground like you can do with vehicles in il-2?

- Will the player be able to animate the humans. Like making their arms move and such?

Oleg, thanks for being so helpful.

Is there a chance of seeing more in-game shots this friday?

Also, you mentioned that colours etc are not permanent in regards to the terrain. Are the textures we are seeing here actually going to be used on the map of britain?

You can drive vehicles in il-2?! :confused:

No philip.ed. Perhaps I did not describe the question clearly enough :confused:

In the editor in il-2 you can control vehicles through waypoints and I was just wondering if this would be possible with humans in SOW:BOB.

Scripted animation of human at the moment under quesrtion. Too much work.
At first we should finish pilots and crew of bombers. Then the guys on the AA artillery. then we will see.

In the release we don't plan controlable vehiclles by players. However I wrote that it is possible future of the project. We put in code the feature of use it in future :)

If there will be humans walking around then probably yes, like the cars also would be possible

Ahh, that makes sense :D

I'll tell you what would be a real immersion factor in SoW. If ever a BoF addon was made, how cool would it be to land to find the airfield completely destroyed and to have some erk shouting 'get in the bloody truck!'. Then you can get in the truck, be driven to another airfield and start operating from there. I've never played a game, apart from maybe BoB2 WoV, where I have had to move airfields because my one was too badly damaged.

This brings me on to another question: oleg, will airfields have the ability to be damaged to the extent where there are bomb craters on the field, and even unexploded bombs? ;)

God, I'm having fun reading this stuff...thanks Oleg!!! :) :)

Same, I keep on refeshing my browser as it says that oleg is still online ;) LOL :-P

About multiplayer.

Would be possible have a different (improved) score system, where we can register also factories, airfields, arbours ecc. ecc. as destroyed targets or better area?
This feature could be usefull for online events and not only for BoB. For ex, blue must destroy 75% of London industrial area, and red of course must defend the same area. This should be possible in a dog server with a time limit.

Actualy in SEOW campaigns we do it putting a car inside the factories, hangar, house, fuel depot ecc. ecc..

Destroy... 75%... :shock:

I didn't know Germans had nuclear bombs in BoB.



It was posted before that BoB has completely different scoresystem. Since static emplacements like radars, airfields and bunkers are now a priority target, as opposed to the primarily CAS and tank-busting on the eastern front, I bet static objects will be an important part of this new scoring system.

75% is an example......

Yes, so: can we scored an idustrial (generic) area? When you say static objects, are you talking about the static objects we already have on the map as default static objects?

I'll answer that while Oleg's out.

The textures are WIP. Some are placeholders, other are not. Once the colors are fixed, the non-placeholder textures will be used in the main gameplay map.

I want to explain the thought process behind the map you're seeing right now a little better. It wasn't a "let's make a little slice of Britain" kind of thing. It wasn't a "let's make the most gorgeous map we can" kind of thing. It was a "let's make a map where we can stretch out various textures, test various options of 3D cliffs, and have a large variety of terrain types dumped together for quicker debugging."

That's how a lot of things are done in development. You need intermediary steps on the long arduous climb to perfection. This map is one of those steps.

Well, as posted it's just my bet. But I'm pretty sure somehow it will be implemented. Now, if it will be triggers or special win-markers that need to be destroyed, I don't know. But I still bet it will be possible in some way.

Thanks luthier, that makes perfect sense. Can I ask, when designing your textures for britain/france, are you using historical photos when possible? For example, will you be attempting to perfectly replicate the actual fields and roads that exist? So for example, if I was flying around kent I could use the roads to find my way back to, say, west-malling...? ;)

Thanks for being so helpful though. I know I have a lot of questions ;)

i hope they use the photos i was asked to take back in 2004(or 5 cant remember now)...i took about 60 pics of pre-war houses, pubs, farms and other stuff. cant wait to see if some of them made it into SOW :)

Beautiful work, Oleg and Luthier! The 110 screenshot is especially amazing... Very true to life. I think I can see the light at the end of the tunnel, too! :grin:

Since it's now possible to open canopies, etc (I may be wrong?), I wonder if it'd be possible too to have more complex 'bail out' sequences?

Bailing out is a pretty desperate and sometimes violent ordeal, and it'd be incredible if your view point could kind of 'leap' out of the cockpit and 'spin' away from the plane instead of just popping into a 3rd-person perspective of the pilot in his chute.

Also, up till now, you know that you're getting out if your plane's high enough and you hit the 'bail out' key, but in real life it might be impossible due to high speed, g's, or violent spinning... Maybe add a little fear into hitting 'ctrl-e'? :)

I remember a patch added to European Air War long ago that added 'realistic' bail outs, and it was a pretty scary ordeal. You definitely weren't assured of making it out alive if you weren't straight and level, and it made you wonder about bailing out long before you were missing a wing, tail, and engine and were fluttering to the ground.

That would be cool. However, from the screens it is clear that we won't be able to see the pilots arms, legs, torso etc. It would be a bit odd to have the process in 1st person without seeing these features. I'm not sure though, it could work....;)

Thanks for the insight. As an artist I've learned not to show WIP that doesn't look complete (even if it's not) because the natural response from people is to get worried if they don't understand the process. Knowing the purpose of this particular map I can now better see what is being tested.

grab0130
these clouds look amazing!

hi Oleg,

thanks for your previous answer

Q: about dynamic campaign and aircraft available at airfields

1) will destroying enemy aircraft parked on the ground affect the aircraft the enemy pilots can "select" at that airfield ?
2) will fresh aircraft re-supply to front line airfields be modeled in the campaign timeline, eg
- every X time the factory production can produce X number aircraft type A,B,C and those become available at regular interval to be flown to airfields for us. if more enemy aircraft are destroyed then they can produce, this affects aircraft available at that specific airfield (forcing pilots of that team to use more rear located airfields, and hence need more flying time to the frontline which further weakens their team)
- if all 109's at an airfield are destroyed on the ground, the german pilots should not be able to select 109's at that airfield, and after X time some fresh factory 109's could be flown in to that airfield and become available
3) will new aircraft resupply to airfields be modeled by AI flying in these aircraft (which means the enemy would see those resupply flights to, and could intercept them)
4) if aircraft are damaged at an airfield, either because a pilot landed a damaged aircraft or some aircraft were damaged by an enemy attack, will those aircraft be "repaired" on the ground in XYZ time and gradually become available again ? (major damage to aircraft would mean dead aircraft, less damage could be gradually repaired)

thx for all your hard work on BoB, it is very exiting to see the continued development coming together at this stage :)

those type of factors really affect immersion in a sim, because the actions from each team have a direct effect on the opposing teams fighting ability

5) if some of those campaign features are not immediately available, is this part of your game engine that will be "open" for your fanbase to work on themselves so they can put time and effort into those aspects of the game to ?

I remember a similar problem when installing concealed vertical rod exit devices in brand new double doors. (my buddy the glass guy had recieved the doors four weeks late on the day that the customers were supposed to move in and they weren't prepped for the hardware, hardware that was never designed to be field installed by the way)

It was the hardest thing to explain to everyone that the job was 89% prep work and that once the doors started to sprout lock parts the job was nearly done. Sure enough an hour after I screwed in the first mounting stud I was hanging the doors.

To be fair they were moving several million dollars worth of medical equipment in the back while I was trying to get the doors finished in front. So a suppose a little panic was in order from people who don't understand the process.

Thank you Oleg & Co for the nice updates.
Here are a couple of questions.

Q1. Could you please tell us something about light rendering in SoW regarding "after sunset" that means nighttime. As of now, I have not seen any PC simluator that simulates pitch black night conditions.
(only real "industrial" full flight simulators at the academy).

Take IL2 versus reality for example, there is no way that you could navigate in the air @ 23:35 on a Octobre night in Europe region without instruments. You would not see the horizon, or anything at all.. unless perhaps three conditions applied:
A) Lots of groundlights giving away the contour of terrain and horizon.
B) Altitude was 65.000 feet and above and you might get a glimpse of dawn or sunset far far away.
C) There is moonligt or bright stars and you are flying over the artics..

In IL2 I cannot recreate any night time condition where it is difficult to see the ground or navigate... regardless of time, season or location.
The only time I get problem navigating is when I am above overcast or when flying inside a cloud. (ofcourse)

So to get back to the question, please tell us something about differances with IL2 and SoW regarding night conditions.

I know that there are many "experts" out there that would like to wave off this question by just saying..
"well, during world war 2 they never flew at night, or they did very seldom because it was so difficult.. so why even bother making this realistic.. its just a waste of developer time... its not worth it, its not interesting bla bla bla."

All I wish for is a combat flightsim where it IS difficult or nearly impossible to fly during nighttime.
:)


Q2. Regarding CEM. etc... Will it be possible to select feeding from different fuel tanks in the planes that have this ability? (tank selector valve)

Thank you very much for the efforts you are putting into this simulator.
Best wishes from a cold and very dark Scandinavia.
;)

Hi Oleg,

Lovely shots, very excited. I have a question about your Spitfire model, it has chord-wise stiffeners installed above the main wheel wells, I had thought these weren't installed until later in the war, predominately on Spitfires involved in dive bombing, due to stresses involved during high g pull outs. Photo evidence would have it that the average Mk I/II Spits did not have them during the Battle of Britain, although they could have been retro-fitted after the battle as the airframes aged. The Spit Mk I at the IWM in London has them, but also carries late war roundels which suggests the stiffeners were added later.

I think the biggest problem is for computers at home: It's nearly impossible to see anything in night conditions in the game if the room the monitor is in is sunlit, or otherwise bright. This is also a concern with the glossy monitor screens that seem to be more common these days. Making a pitch black environment would just turn the screen into a mirror for some folks unless they had the luxury of playing in a darkroom. It's not always possible if you have a family or roommates that need the light :)

Thanks a lot :)

I was wondering if rain and snow was going to be added and how would they be modelled? I would luv to see rain landing on my canopy and wings.

Maybe some part didn't have it, however in manufacture design description it is present for MKI and up. It is probably the same thing like in SU with aviation - by manufacture design description all aircraft had radio station, however in reality many of then hadn't in 1941 due to lack of details or due to fact that some pilots removed it especially (both things were present)
We can't make so many small diffences for each period of war or life of the plane in one squadron. Say in case of radio call we would need to make way more complex system of radio chatter code... But we need universal system for the whole period of war... Such contradictions some time very hard to solve. Just for example.

For the spitfires as I recall we did two types of proppeller and pitch regulation. This is possible and must be, becasue type of prop changes the behavior of aircraft at climb, acceleration and as a result - in dogfight.
Such things are very important for the flight and as a result for the gameplay. We try to go by this way at first learning experience of Il-2 gameplay.

Snow is absent in BoB and in engine at the moment. Snow will be only when we will model real winter.
It isn't so hard to program feature, but not neccesary now

1. Can't say you all details at the moment. the night should be tuned as all these things with the wathe conditions, movement of clouds, type of clouds, etc. Technology existed, but need fine tunings its what the part of my guys doing. I only can say that all these things are far of representation such things in Il-2, however I don't remember other WWII sims that was making better than in Il-2...

2. Possible. Even to start separate gasoline engine of air compessor for the brakes with exhaust of gazes under the pilot seat in Italian bomber posssible... However when I saw that it was done already by programmer, I said for what? Do you think somebody will use it or even know about such a feature of Br.20? His answer was - its fan and crazy! Then I told and how we will model the bad feel of crew due to exhaust gazes in a cockpit? :)

We use historical photos, however we don't plan to make full copy of real things. It is almost impossible. Is possible to put modern sattelite map and forget about everything and don't even make different buildings ans special dedicaded areas... its what make most others now.
That to make so great non-pixelated ground and great detail from the air or on the ground we need to go for compomises - there will be tiled hand made textures, but in such amount that you probably will be unable to see the tile even from high altitude.
Also we have unique textures that by our technology (next generation of similar in Il-2 and that still nobody as I can see don't have) we can put in different places and you will not see any bad edges, trasitions, etc...
Some historical buildings/areas of course are some copy of real, but there are a lot of other buildings that are generic for some area and we use it to build cities/regions. This is common technology in all games, even when you heard that it is a total copy..
Roads: As you may see on screenshots they are not like in IL-2, but also not like in other games. about this you will know more later. I can't tell all secrets at the moment.

Probably I will show some other things.

SpassibaOleg!
 

Thank you for your participation and this thread. Reminds my of the good ol ORR years ago.(SOB!)

I have a couple of q:s for you;

Q:1 Will BOB be 32 or 64 bits?

Q:2 Will it support physiqs? (spelling?)

Q:3 Will it support multi cores?

Q:4 Will it support Dx 11?

Regards from a hot and humid Thailand

Khun Viking

For some questions I already did answers

1. probably. Not sure. Non standard yet for all.
2. Hardware manufacturers asking us, but we wont at the moment untill all will be as a standard. Too much time development for doubtful advantage and unclear future for some of these technologies.
3. yes
4. yes

I think we was need to show something... because people was too many times asking.
And I hope many clever people were able to see what we have already in our hands and may understand how it will be in future.

Speed oF AI Aircraft After Takeoff
 

Thank you for the Friday update, Oleg - it looks like I can really look forward to my Fridays again.

I am not wanting to say too much - I can see that you are getting loads of suggestions (some good, some totally impractical I would imagine!).

My questions to you are:

- will the AI aircrafts' speeds be "toned down" - it was always a real battle for me to catch up to my squadron/flight ... usually I did that as we were about to reach the target - hehe!

- a few "immersion-givers" eg flocks of birds - such things definitely help with immersion!

Thanks again to you and your team foe what you give us ... speaking for myself, IL-2 (and the add-on's Forgotten Battles etc) has provided me with 1 000's of hrs of enjoyment.
.

You did correction when I was correcting myself :)

Spassiba!
 

Sounds good!
Hoping for 64 bits as I belive that is the future.

If my investments in Russian oil turns out prosperus I will invite you to a diving trip here in the Andaman sea.

Regards

Khun Viking

:grin:

In Il-2 original when the missions were hand made we was making tuning for such thing as a "waiting circle" were it was neccessary... however in dynamic campaign in most cases it wasn't present, but if you are good with aircraft control of engine and optimal climb - then there shouldn't be real problem to catch the whole your AI group.

No blood and pices of animals.

Ok. Would be happy!

Oleg with the game being so close, and no press reports. It seems to me that 1C would have to be the publisher, is that the case. Will the game be offered via both download & hardcopy, thanks

Hello Oleg from Spain! Thank you for your great job and your kind attendance to this lot of questions from we fanatics of the IL-2 !

One question, may be asked before what IMHO not answered yet:


Will SOW have a different kill counting system than IL-2, including shared kills between several pilots which have hit and shot down an enemy plane?

Now in Il-2 some people shot to planes with a bailed pilot, or burning or even set in pieces, stealing the kill to the first pilot who get that. Last hits on a plane give the kill to the last pilot to hit, so this kill-stealing is producing argues, badwords and bad feelling in online battles. This is an important point to have a good playing atmosphere on line.

Added: It would be helpful that in the above mentioned cases, (shooting a bailed, burning or destroyed plane) the kill stealer does not get any credit for that kill.


Thank you very much and come on !

Sorry my not too good english.

Hi Oleg!
I want to say thx for taking time to answer all those questions, I'm always hitting the refresh button to see if you say something new and exiting!

I just want to know(I'm sorry if the quetion was already asked), when we bail out, will it be like in Il2 when you pass through the plane, or you must place the plane as to not get struck by the tail ?

And do you think that the new Ati5870(single or crossfire) is powerfull enough to play SoW at Max setting ?

I don't know. Its not in my "area"...
However I'm sure that everything will be Ok with publishing.
And in my opinion Internet now is way better way to advertize anything.... especially when developers speaking directly to users, to old and future. :)
As I recall I was one of the first if not the first in the world who did the Friday update online system - talking to users, listen their needs, etc... Its happened the year before Il-2 orignal release when I begun to make such updates on Blue Byte board. Thomas Hertzler, CEO of Blue Byte said me that he need to copy and make such system for all his developers, looking for my experience :) And thanks him he was always understanding me from a half word. We are still in good contact with him. For sure the term "Friday development update" and "Oleg's Friday development update" about my updates said online in particular Thomas Hertzler.

We have completely different to Il-2 score system. Maybe we will change something in one or other side during tunings of gameplay, but for now I can say that we have way more features to collect scores for most objects.

As for shared kills - yes we will have it.

Bail out we didn't make yet becasue we haven't yet finished pilots. We have some ideas how to make it, but can't say them right now.

I really think that if you are witing only for our title, then don't by newst card. Better to ait when they will be cheaper at least. And to buy if planned just before release of BoB or a bit later :)

Oleg, how playable is the sim right now? Are you all having dogfights in the office at lunch time or is it in a state where it's not playable other than for strict testing purposes?

Maybe it's why you had to fire some staff, they spent too much time playing! :)

Craters
 

I saw somewhere above the question about craters on the airfield. Didn't find. Or maybe it was on russian forum.. simply tired.
Yes it will be. They are technically flat, but looking completely 3D due to used for this purpose technology. And of course you may damage the gear or aircraft completely there.
They will have tunings in editor for the "time of life" - this is neccessary for the gameplay - for sinlge and especially for online. Craters are important element of gameplay.

We don't play yet multiplay. Also just 4 aircraft and they are not fully tuned.
I think we'll begin to play ourselves more in spring
But for now - implementation al of the things that we did completely, for the ground and for the air. And for the sea/rivers of course.
And during that time we tune and tune. from damage to AI.
On my PC I can dogfight bf109 or spit, drop bombs from BR20 or Stuka. However its a time when I see the implementation of the first ready explosions and smokes, part of ready sounds, etc...
Everythng simultaniosly in tuning.

Hi Oleg,
amazing by what you and your team done on this Saga!
My Q is, Does SOW can have a feature that as the more kills the player do the system will allow he can equipt some unique or special devices on plane. like rear view mirror, more well polished plane which can make player's AC a little bit faster than others same type ones(Maybe 2km-3km/hr faster), or a telescope that like Galland used to identify enemy more easyly? maybe this feature can be introduced in Net campain in a reasonable way?

No. The it will be looking like arcade (console) game.

Hi Oleg

Thanks for the news and for the human and honest answers. That is top quality in the industry, no matter what other could say! Thanks

I have just known that SOW will be DirectX10/11, that is wonderful news for the subject of my question:

I would like to know if you are doing it in a way to be compatible with nvidia 3D Vision technology (stereoscopic gaming product that converts in real time any DirectX game to stereocopy). Maybe nvidia contacted you about that. Nvidia is giving support to developers to make their games compatible. Maybe that could help.


The old IL2 was working in OGL and excellent settings max, with old stereoscopic solution from nvidia, but that product (old stereo solution I mean) was really poorly supported. Nevertheless I couldn't imagine to play IL2 in 2D (or flat 3D if you want), so amazing is IL2 with real depth... The new one (3D Vision) is completely different in terms of marketing and reliability. It is much more supported by the market and nvidia.

In general (and theoretically) it only needs "a fraction" (or not!) of the work that could cost to implement other techs (for example phyXs which you said you were already doubting about it...)

Thank you very much!

PS I am personally VERY satisfied that the next WWII flight sim is developped by you, because I admire your professionality and honesty, as anybody can see by reading your posts. Quite rare to find today. That is.

More great news than I can count.:cool:

Craters on the runway - hooah!
Shared kills - yeah!
Complex scoring - awesome!

So true.


I'm really looking forward to see alll those awesome details coming together in a great simulation.

And again thank you for taking your time to answer all our questions. I don't know if you invented this level of communication, but it's definitely a rare sight that the leading developers take so much time to talk to their communities like you and luthier do. Thank you very much for that!

First of all thanks you for you warm words. Really my honesty was always a problem in my life... Especially in soviet time...

If NIVIDIA will give us that hardware later, then I don't think that to implement the page of their souce code would be too complex. I personally have great experience in steroscopic images both in photo and computer. In the past we were one of the very first developers that supported VFX-1 and I-Glasses helmets and stereo gogles. But it was born probably too early.

Thanks for the quick and kind reply!. Glad to hear that you like and have great experience on stereoscopy. I like it too!

According to what I know the stereo images are created by the driver, thus only some "good practices" in the way the 3D rendering is done should be considered...but I am not a developer, so I am not completely sure.

If you don't mind I'll link your answer in a topic in the nvidia 3D vision forums. From time to time Andrew Fear (person in charge of 3D Vision product inside nvidia) appears and answers/reads, etc, so maybe I could "awake" them and make them to contact/supply you with the needed...

NVIDIA in direct contact with us. Currently they want us implement the separate support of CUDA.
However its not a time when we may spend additional great time to work with it even it is possible. But we are in constant contact and they never told me about new steroscopic item.
Anyway any implementation of such things as steroscopic should go only when everything is clear and we may spend additional time. Maybe even after release. Because I'm sure there will be add-ons. Not like in the past, but will be. Something will be free. Something - not. The project is too much time and money engrossing due to its complexity.

Hi Oleg, its good you expect the game to be released in 2010, can I ask at what point of the development do you plan to start creating the campaigns for BOB, is this something you do after beta test? Also is it possible you could give us some insight into how the Campaigns will differ from Il2. I wish you luck it sounds like you have a massive amount of work to complete. :grin:

He-he.... seems you got answers way more than promised.....

LOL Incredible :grin:...I guess nvidia is too big and they fight in several different fronts :). Well, but the product exists and is called 3D Vision. They know about it (and it is normally available in Russia as it is in Europe or America)

Completely agree, the basic/important things are the first. Moreover I remember some other games released patches for stereo support (at the time of the old stereoscopic solution) even after release (LockOn did that, and the first Blazing Angels too)

I'll post in 3d vision nvidia forums anyway to make people be aware SOW:BOB.

I can hardly believe "talking" with you. Thanks a lot for all you do and for being as you are.

Really my thoughts about campaign now changed. I don't think anymore that single play campaign is so importnat thing in a modern fligth sim (or speaking common - in any game). It doesn't means we stop it. It measn that we will try to put more gameplay features into online modes... and all of them will be based on the special BATTLE ENGINE that we are almost finished in development (with the possibility to increase features in future) its a complex system that allow to get the modes of gameplay from the only one universal gameplay engine in which are present elements of many known types of online and single gameplay of very different games. Just for example we may use it for deathmatch like in shooter, of for constant cooperative play... Constant cooperative gameplay means that in single play we may use it just for one gamer... How this mode (single play) will looks in final - I don't know 100%. We know what should be. But I wont say everything now. Already told too much about online :)

However simple Il-2 style dogfight we will keep for novices and their trainings ;)
But I thin bomber there also will be playable as multicrew. Don't know if we will keep the name for this as dogfight.... :)

Everything I told here in code is ready as alpha, except sigle play campaign based on this code. We will begin tunings of this code when we will have way more objects implemented in the sim.

i wish for 24/7 online war that i can join and play when time permits. that to me would be great, and i could have impact on the advance of my army

Probably its one of possible modes :)

:grin::grin::grin::cool:

Oleg please start FTP transfer ;)

I was wondering, after the release of SOW BOB do you plan to develop the later years of the war, as it is in IL2? Like, are you going to model all of the WW2 air war, or just the Battle of Britain? If it is too soon to say that is no problem, I understand. Thank you.

P.S. Your photography is magnificent ;)

Oleg, that was me :D Thanks for your answer.

Does this mean that in SoW's dynamic campaign, an airifield can be bombed to the extent that the squadron will have to move airifields? If so this would be really cool :D

Spinning propellors
 

When seeing the latest screenshots I was asking myself wich kind of spinning propellors planes will have in SoW. Like one can see in RoF there are real 3D objects wich is looking very realistic from side view. Latest SoW shots don't show any propellors at all so I think they will come later. At least I hope that there won't be the flat spinning propellors wich we know from IL-2.

http://img137.imageshack.us/img137/9554/propellors.jpg

Its all the time... 49 % :(

Hello Oleg!

Talking as we are about missions and campaign, I just would like to give here an extract of an old thread initiated by "Feathered IV" which has just recently surfaced; I do not like too much the way this thread evolved with time but the initial post had interesting views concerning modes/missions which would add a lot to game immersion:

"What if other mission perameters were coded in? What other options could we get?

Maybe instead you'd like to pilot a Lysander for SOE. Fly over to France at zero altitude in the dead of night. Alone in the dark, you would struggle to find 'that little field' marked on your map and glide into it, engine off so as not to alert the Jerries.

Perhaps you'd rather fly a Storch, evacuating wounded from the combat area. Or maybe spotting for the artillery? What if you could give directions and targeting information to ground units?

What about unarmed photo recon? Take your Blenheim across to France to take photographs of the invasion barges. Photographs that the campaign generator can judge and pass you on.

Coastal Command perhaps? Why not have a crew that can actually call out the sightings of distant ships and other objects and give an intelligent description of their range, type and heading?

Or nightfighters with AI radar operators that can actually guide you to the kill?

Wouldn't you like to try to fly a danerously overloaded Ju-52 into the icy landing strips of Stalingrad one day? Or a C-47 over the Himalayas?"

I think creating (or being able to create) missions like this (or even integrating them into a campaign) would add immensely to game's interest!

Do you think it will be possible in the SoW series?

Thanks a lot,

JVM

Don't worry, we have better. Just problem currently to show it on a fixed screen shot... because we have the image of really rotating 3D model with visible pitch changes... But we will solve this problem when taking screen shots and even in video, when frame rate video capture isn't the same as in game.

If it will succesfull - why not? I would say that it will be neccessary :) That to get back invested great money in engine and the first game on its engine.

Somthing like this. But trasfer isn't implemented yet. Campaign code is on initial stage. The code of campaign isn't too complex. Complex is tuning of all features possible there...

Wow! Thank you.

I think most will be possible, including Himalayas itself.
But probably that will do third party.
Our goal to make the good basis for the future upgrades and changes, including best work from third parties. It is more heavy task than to make just single one season/christmas game.

In this point of view MS FS reached great result with third parties. And instead, shown degradation with the MS CFS with third partie's chaos. Our goal - to learn experience of both MS sim series and our own experience with Il-2 series and to make the system that will be long life-able with the great and right support from third parties... which would not damage fair online gameplay without cheating. So some control from our side we will keep of course.

Of course it will be successful ;), thanks for the reply.

Wow -- this is a true information fest ! I think we get more than enough compensation for the long silence. Thank you Oleg !

Wow, you truly know how to make us HOT for your new product. :grin:

Will SoW have Onlinestats, Budylists, voting systems, ingame serverbrowser etc? (probably going too much into details here ;) )

Well, I can't tell you how glad I am that the focus turned to multiplayer, now. It really is a major factor for longterm playability and a living community. Two thumbs up, especially since being rather frustrated with other titles like... well, RoF has already been mentioned so without the intention to go OT, I just don't understand why a purely online-playable game has no dedicated server, no possibility to join running sessions, etc. and I absolutely have no idea, what made neoqb think patching up multiplayer gameplay is a secondary objective and pushed it back even further down the line... :rolleyes:

Ok, thanks for that oleg ;)

Oleg, have you seen the 'real-environment' addon for FSX? Basically it adds clouds which can change forms etc Would something like this be implemented into SoW?

Also, ddn't you once say that SoW could (in the future) be a basis for all upcoming flight-sims, so that there may be a chance it could have civilian add-ons etc...? ;)

Oleg, would any future add-ons to SoW be co-ordinated by your team? Or would anoyone be able to do what they wish? I ask because I have always felt that the desert-war hasn't been modelled to its best in any flight-sim, so a northern - africa addon to SoW would (IMHO) go down really well.

Hello Oleg,

this is a minor thing and not really important, I realize. But still I was curious about it:
The Luftwaffe installed at one point little floating metal pontons/islands throughout the channel in an attempt to keep the losses down of pilots in water. The idea was to get to a ponton so that you could wait there to be rescued by water plane or friendly ship.
Did you know this and have you thought of modelling them?

Not important feature I know, but was curious to ask.

:D

Oleg, you've entertained me for years with the IL2 series, can't wait to be further entertained by the Storm of War and see how it develops over it's lifespan like IL2 has done, thank you, keep up the great work :)